Lascelve Graham | Jamaica and colour prejudice

A RECENT Reuters report highlighted death threats directed at school boards in the United States of America (USA) for, among other things, a change in policy with respect to the teaching of America’s racial history. In America, in education, racial inequality is prominent in the areas of access, opportunity and outcomes.

Critical race theory is a framework that offers a race-conscious approach to understanding educational inequality and structural racism. It is designed to find solutions that lead to greater justice. It has been seriously resisted throughout the USA, especially in the South…the Bible Belt. Of course, there have been a number of atrocities, too numerous to mention here, committed against dark-skinned (black) people in the US. In Ukraine, children of ‘mixed race’ were always outcasts, and black people have been seriously discriminated against while attempting to flee the war, with a gun being held to the head of a black man as a means of persuasion to get off the bus taking people to safety. The commentary on the war, and the treatment of Ukrainian refugees versus non-European ones, clearly illustrate the ‘white is right’ principle of white supremacists, in which the world is awash. There are examples of racism aplenty in the USA, Europe, Asia and Africa itself, with apartheid in South Africa having been the most extreme form.

The above is true although the scientific facts have debunked, rubbished, shown to be false, a lie, the premise, the foundation on which white supremacy is based. The concept of ‘race’ – biologically, physiologically unmixable, distinguishable groups of people, where certain races are superior and others inferior – has been shown to have no basis in science, although decades, centuries have been spent by distinguished scientists, light-skinned and others, e.g. Nina Jablonski, Cheikh Anta Diop, researching this. The facts are clear, but the prejudice against dark-skinned peoples continues apace, with devastating effect! Racism abounds!

WHITEWASHED WORLD

But, what of Jamaica? How does it fit into this whitewashed world? Is it any different?

Jamaica’s motto, ‘Out Of Many, One People’, implies diversity of citizenry. It is not a homogeneous society. The vast majority (over 90 per cent) are Afro-Jamaicans (black), descendants of slaves. The social order, where light-skinned (white) inhabitants dominate the economic landscape, has not changed fundamentally since slavery days. The complaints of other blacks in the USA and elsewhere with respect to poverty, poor education, housing and lack of opportunities for the black masses are echoed here. In the USA, because of the demographics, with the overwhelming preponderance of whites, racism is much more in your face, blatant, open, and coarse. In Jamaica, perforce, it manifests with much more subtlety. Nonetheless, its effects on the physical, psychological aspects of people’s lives are stark. Examples include, people bleaching their skin because they see that lighter skin is favoured by the society, “Nutten black no gud”. From whence came these sentiments, actions of self-hate, and deprecation? From a benign, nurturing, empowering society, or from one which alienates the majority of its citizens? With regard to hair, youngsters with Afro hairstyles are prevented from attending certain schools. In Jamaica, discussing slavery and highlighting the injustices it has perpetuated until today, in an attempt to right the wrongs, is frowned upon. Of course, silence has a long history of being used as a means of control.

It is sad to see that so often the enforcers of this silence, the promoters of the white agenda, which seeks to muzzle, mute the activists and agitators for racial justice, are the educated, well-trained dark-skinned leaders of our society, who have obviously succumbed to the relentless brainwashing. Bleached thoughts within the dark-skinned Jamaican community manifest in the lower socio-economic section as physical skin bleaching, but in the well-to-do group, as a more sophisticated collaboration with the white racist agenda. Both represent a betrayal of the black cause!

Sometime ago the highly regarded magazine, National Geographic, did a series titled ‘The Race issue’. In it, they showed that there is no scientific basis for race, and that it is a made-up label which has been used to define and separate people for millennia, although the concept of race is not grounded in genetics. The reply of some black intellectuals when shown this was, “Is the world all biology?” The exact response one would expect from a white supremacist! Here it is, black people had been vindicated, had won a battle that has been raging for centuries, yet this should be brushed aside, as they would have us do with slavery, and we should move on to something else. Suppose the science had found otherwise? Would this have been a big thing? Would blacks have been allowed to move on? Or, would the propaganda, the hypnotic, the psychological machinery be ramped up, galvanised, and brought to bear fully in spreading the news? Would it be of any significance then?

PSYCHOLOGICAL RACE WAR

Carter G. Woodson wrote, “When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit.” Pavlov’s dogs indicated something similar! The race war is indeed psychological. It is about controlling the minds of the people. The thrust is to promote white privilege and entitlement, to enhance whiteness and devalue blackness, and to have the masses accept this. In Jamaica, the messages are similar, and hence the outcomes described above. Jamaica fits seamlessly into this scheme of things. The powers that be do all they can to maintain the status quo, to maintain the plantation totem pole.

Ralph Ellison said, “When I discover who I am, I will be free.” Identity is what culture and history psychologically provide for a people. It gives them roots and strengthens these roots, and is a bulwark against the ill effects of marginalisation. That is why, given our demographics, it is so important that our school curriculum includes, from early- childhood education, empowering elements. Two examples would be the philosophy of our national hero, Marcus Garvey, and the history of ancient civilisations, when dark- skinned peoples were powerful and the dominant forces in the world. This would serve to emphasise that all peoples are equal, the same; it is circumstances which change. Empires rise and fall on that basis. It would help us move closer to the ideal expressed by our motto, ‘Out Of Many, One People’.

Dr Lascelve ‘Muggy’ Graham is a former senior captain of the Jamaica football team. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.